Browning's Italy: A Study of Italian Life and Art in Browning

Browning's Italy: A Study of Italian Life and Art in Browning

Excerpt

The inspiration for much of Robert Browning's work was found elsewhere than in Italy, yet the fact that many of his. most popular shorter poems as well as his great crux "Sordello" and his great masterpiece "The Ring and the Book" blossomed from the soil of Italian life and art has brought into prominence his debt to Italian sources. Doubtless his many years of happy life with Mrs. Browning in Italy, as well as her enthusiasm for the cause of Italian independence, served to intensify the interest and delight which he felt upon his initial visit to the land that was to become one of enchantment to him.

His first journey thither was taken in 1838, with a view to becoming familiar with the scenes among which "Sordello" had been conceived. The special experience of this visit seems to have been the admiration awakened in him for the beautiful little hill-town of Asolo, -- the play-kingdom of Caterina Cornaro. His first love among Italian cities . . .

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